Tallinn, Estonia.......Medieval Gem
After leaving Riga we continued our Baltic journey by bus to Tallinn. It is like a fairytale city with large sections of medieval city walls, turrets, and gates still in place. They have the best intacted medieval city walls in Europe. The entire old town has been declared a UNESCO heritage site. We really enjoyed just strolling through the streets.
The museum in the Old Town Hall was excellent. We learned a great deal about the city. What they have done to save and preserve the building is remarkable.
We took a Funky Bike Tour. It goes off the normal, tourist beaten path. We got to see the train station and some areas that are in transition. We visited a flea market and the guide gave us 5 Kroon (about $0.47) and we were to find something funky. Brian brought back a set of large safety pins. Rob found a plastic Wilma Flintstone and Hippo waiter toy from cereal boxes. Unfortunately, neither of these was funky enough to win.
We continued the tour around a Soviet prison that is no longer used. It was only closed in 2003 because deadly mold was discovered there. Since the prison was closed we toured half of the Estonian submarine fleet that is now decommissioned.
Both mornings we had a nice breakfast at a restaurant called Pegasus. We also got a much needed milk shake fix at Pizza Americana.We went to the Upper Town near the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Domed Church (Toomkirik). There are vantage points to look out over the city. We took some amazing cityscape shots from there. While Brian was snapping photos, a man tried to sell Rob some CD’s of traditional Estonian music and war songs. Brian got the great pictures and Rob passed on the CD’s. We watched a beautiful sunset and then crashed for the evening.
Our next stop was across the Gulf of Finland in Helsinki.
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The room I had was very small, and was in the attic of the building so the headroom on the sloping side was a problem. There was no window but, there is a skylight with sliding shade. The bed was good but comfy would be a stretch. The bath was clean and stylish. The experience over all was good but given the price, I expected just a bit more.....not alot more...just a bit.
